The heavy LEGACY: Should weight management be part of every atrial fibrillation clinic?

Authors

  • Auras R Atreya 1. Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Massachusetts 2. Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Gregory R Giugliano 1. Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Massachusetts 2. Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts

Abstract

As the global burden of atrial fibrillation (AF) and its attendant economic impact on the healthcare system surges, there is increasing interest in the secondary prevention of AF with various therapies. Of the several identified risk factors for AF, obesity is an important contributor that may be managed with intensive lifestyle modification. Prior studies have demonstrated the short-term and long-term benefits of weight loss in reduction of AF symptoms. In the LEGACY study [Long-Term Effect of Goal-Directed Weight Management in an Atrial Fibrillation Cohort: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study], the investigators evaluated the long-term effects of a weight management program on AF symptoms. Of the 355 patients included in this cohort, outcomes such as AF symptom burden, arrhythmia-free survival, inflammatory markers and structural cardiac changes all appear to have improved in the intense weight loss group as compared to the 2 other groups.

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Published

2017-09-10

Issue

Vol. 2015 No. 4 (2015)

Section

Lessons from the trials

License

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.